different between jostle vs jab

English

Etymology

Originally justle (“to have sex with”), formed from Middle English jousten, from the Old French joster (“to joust”), from Latin iuxt? (“next to”), from iung? (“join, connect”), equivalent to joust +? -le.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d??s.?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??.s?l/
• Rhymes: -?s?l

Verb

jostle (third-person singular simple present jostles, present participle jostling, simple past and past participle jostled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To bump into or brush against while in motion; to push aside.
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 13, Section 3, pp. 434-435,^[1]

     Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which by accident or choice men pursue, and though they jostle against each other, for men of the same profession are seldom friends, yet there is a much greater number of their fellow-creatures with whom they never clash. But women are very differently situated with respect to each other—for they are all rivals.

   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening, Chapter 12, p. 214,^[2]

     It is not that there are several systems of movement, physical, intellectual, and moral, which are perpetually jostling each other, or which clash whenever they come in contact, and which move on by the one vanquishing the other. But, on the contrary, each of these economies takes its uninterrupted course, as if there were no other moving within the same space […]

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Volume 1, Chapter 3, pp. 370-371,^[3]

     […] when the lord of a Lincolnshire or Shropshire manor appeared in Fleet Street, he was as easily distinguished from the resident population as a Turk or a Lascar. […] Bullies jostled him into the kennel. Hackney coachmen splashed him from head to foot. […]
2. (intransitive) To move through by pushing and shoving.
   • 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, Book One, Chapter 3,^[4]

     Axia and Amory, acquaintances of an hour, jostled behind a waiter to a table at a point of vantage; there they took seats and watched.

3. (transitive) To be close to or in physical contact with.
   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, London: John Murray, Chapter 4, p. 114,^[5]

     […] the advantages of diversification of structure, with the accompanying differences of habit and constitution, determine that the inhabitants, which thus jostle each other most closely, shall, as a general rule, belong to what we call different genera and orders.

4. (intransitive) To contend or vie in order to acquire something.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, in Tales of My Landlord, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Third Series, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 22,^[6]

     Dick, who, in serious earnest, was supposed to have considerable natural talents for his profession, and whose vain and sanguine disposition never permitted him to doubt for a moment of ultimate success, threw himself headlong into the crowd which jostled and struggled for notice and preferment.

   • 1917, Rudyard Kipling, “The Children,” poem accompanying the story “The Honours of War” in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan, pp. 129-130,^[7]

     […] Our statecraft, our learning

     Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning

     Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour.

5. (dated, slang) To pick or attempt to pick pockets.

Translations

See also

• justle
• joust

Noun

jostle (plural jostles)

1. The act of jostling someone or something; push, shove.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, London: J. Cooke, 1765, p. 241,^[8]

     I had full hold of her Watch, but giving a great Jostle, as if somebody had thrust me against her, and in the Juncture giving the Watch a fair pull, I found it would not come, so I let it go that Moment, and cried out as if I had been killed, that somebody had trod upon my Foot […]

2. The action of a jostling crowd.
   • 1865, Harriet Beecher Stowe (under the pseudonym Christopher Crowfield), The Chimney-Corner, Boston: Ticknor & Field, 1868, Chapter 12, p. 291,^[9]

     For years to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the demand, always great, for some means by which they many provide for themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and imperative.

Translations

English

Etymology

Originally a Scottish (unclear if Scots or Scottish English) form of English job (“peck, poke, thrust”), from Middle English jobben.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Noun

jab (plural jabs)

1. A quick stab or blow; a poking or thrusting motion.
   • 1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural, Chapter 9,

     He tore in for the ball, make a running jab for it and held it.

2. (boxing) A short straight punch.
3. (Britain) A medical hypodermic injection (vaccination or inoculation)

   Our dog was exposed to rabies, so the whole family went to a clinic to get our jabs.

4. (Britain, Australia) A vaccination, whether or not delivered via conventional injection.
5. (US, figuratively) A mild verbal insult.

Derived terms

• jabby

Translations

Verb

jab (third-person singular simple present jabs, present participle jabbing, simple past and past participle jabbed)

1. To poke or thrust abruptly, or to make such a motion.
2. To deliver a quick punch.
3. (slang, Britain) To give someone an injection

Translations

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “jab”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from English job.

Noun

jab m (genitive singular jab, nominative plural jabanna)

1. job, piece of work
2. post, employment

Declension

Derived terms

• jabaire m (“(cattle-)jobber”)

References

• "jab" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English jab.

Noun

jab m (invariable)

1. jab (boxing punch)

Spanish

Noun

jab m (plural jabs)

1. (boxing) jab